Career
Answers
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I know that family history degrees are offered at Brigham Young University, Brigham Young University - Idaho, and the University of Strathclyde. You can take classes through various genealogical institutes. An internet search for genealogy courses offers several results.
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Virtually anything can be a "career" if you are passionate enough about it - - whether or not a college degree is offered.
as many have stated above there are various options as to education.
But dont think that everything is dependent on some college degree.
If a person has enough determination and stamina and preserverance and enough in the way of making opportunities instead of just waiting for them to arrive - one can make a career out of just about anything where there is a demand (or even where the demand had to be created)
if you are passionate enough - you will find a way . . . .
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Whilst I agree with Dennis' general comments, I would advise taking great care about considering making a living from providing services relating to genealogy. In other words, don't give up your day-job first!
There are very limited opportunities in the field, especially now there is wider access to records than in years past. In England, people used to hire a genealogist to visit the church where their ancestors' records were held (especially if they lived far away). Now, most parish records entries for England can be found either online or through a county record office.
Qualifications will be no substitute for experience and, even then, you would have to decide on whether you could manage with being self-employed, and whether you would offer general services or specialise in, say, records of one particular area of the country. You would also have to consider how you would charge for many hours spent on a research project if all that effort produced no results to hand to your client!
As far as other opportunities go, I believe even the major, commercial "genealogy websites" employ a limited amount of professional genealogists - and with FamilySearch you would also need to be a LDS Church member to gain direct employment!
I'm not saying disregard the idea completely - just to take great care before committing yourself to a career in genealogy.
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. If you have enough passion you can make just about anything a career. However I also agree with Paul. A career in genealogy is not for everyone even if you do have a passion for genealogy.
You can surely get a degree in genealogy but depending on how you apply that degree you may find it hard to make a living doing it
paul makes some good points
be sure to consider all the factors
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Thank you for all the information. This was very helpful. Mahalo
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Depends on what you want to do. So far these have mostly mentioned being a private researcher, but there are genealogists who work with POW/MIA finding family to match DNA. There are genealogists who work with lawyers searching for family members of deceased individuals. Obviously, there are genealogists who work with TV shows like Relative Race and Who Do You Think You Are? but also ones who work with historical societies and famous people organizations (think Washington Library at MountVernon.org) Genealogists work with DNA companies and of course in big companies like Ancestry.com, FindMyPast.com and MyHeritage.com. So there are really lots of possibilities out there. Find something you love!
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